The Sheep of My Pasture
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Welcome dear ones to another service. Let us come to the Lord, who leads us beside quiet waters, who restores our soul.
Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
Ezekiel 34:25–31 (NASB95PARA)
“I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them afraid. I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations anymore. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,” declares the Lord God. “As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” declares the Lord God.
We’ll be following the Lectionary cycle for a few weeks, just to give everyone a familiarity with it, and then we’ll move into our cycle of expository preaching - just until services are fully and officially in swing.
There’s also a hint of seeing the big picture that many Christian churches are participating in the same cycle at this time - some with more success than others. There are also a lot of churches who are not Christian who participate in these readings, and we pray for them as well, that they can learn of the Lord of the Bible, and come out from the darkness, ‘Post Tenebres Lux’.
This section of Ezekiel is of course one of the easier ones, a prophetic portion. If you’re not Dispensational, it gets very hard to point to a period in coming history when you can say this chapter takes place.
Dispensationals can point of course to the Millennium. Not being post millennial or amillennial, I don’t know when in history they place this. I would guess that postmillennials place this in the eternity.
The JFB commentary says
The Jews, and Zion, God’s hill (Ps 2:6), are to be sources of blessing, not merely to themselves, but to the surrounding heathen
Matthew Henry in his commentary sees this as post-believer’s judgment.
The renowned planting place in verse 29 is seen by both JFB and Matthew Henry as referring to the Messiah. This could be a translation issue, based upon the lack of older manuscripts that we now posses. The theme of this is the safety of Israel. There will be no more famine, no more drought upon you; you will no longer be tortured by the Gentile nations.
While a number of covenant theologians do not agree that Israel remains a separate entity, distinct from the church, a number of great Covenant thinkers did believe that - Matthew Henry being one, Jamiesom Fawcett and Brown three more. These are great commentaries that all Christians can learn something from..
You can’t say all Covenant thinkers agree on any one position, just as Covenant theologians cannot say we as Dispensationalists all interpret dispensationalism the same way. I don’t agree with all the writings of some dispensationalists, or even Cyrus Schofield. Let’s learn in this church not to paint with too broad a brush. this is how we mis-represent people. Let’s take the time to understand someone’s position as they explain it. If it lines up with Scripture, then good. If not, we then need to analyze further and see where someone has conducted eisegetical reasoning. And if someone has departed into either heresy or apostasy, let us only then proceed to deal with it at that time.
Suffice it to say that Israel will be good Calvinists at this time, having experienced God’s grace by this time, living in the midst of God’s unmerited favor,. Israel will live in the land again, we believe with the Lord Jesus Christ having personally built the millennial temple and dwellling in their midst - all of which is alluded to in the last chapters of Ezekiel. there are lengthy descriptions and measurements of a Temple that has never existed. I daresay all of you will see it with your own eyes in the future, and quite possibly tell me how wrong I was in this sermon.
Turn please to John chapter 10.
At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Through great research, I can plainly tell you with great confidence the timing of John chapter 10 us that it follows John chapter 9.
And precedes the sending of the seventy. See, I did know something after all.
When did Jesus tell the Jews he was the Messiah? Actually, several times. The time He is referring to here is most likely John chapter 6. Jesus actually told them quite specifically He was the Messiah, He was God, one third of the Trinity, and that they weren’t saved.
John 6:35-40 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.””
It’s actually really brutal to read it. Jesus constantly contrasts believers and non believers in John 6 - we see the same thing here. Jesus usually tells them, “Believers are this - nonbelievers are that. You are that.”
The works Jesus did - over 100 - far outnumber the miracles of any other person in the Bible. And if you add in pre-incarnate miracles, they grow to such a number I can’t even count them for you.
Jesus heals multitudes in Matthew 4, casts out demons, cleanses a leper, heals a centurion’s servant who isn’t even present for the healing, heals Peter’s mother in law,heals many in Capernaum, casts out demons, calms storms, heals demons from two demonaics, heals a paralyzed man, a bleeding woman, raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead, gives sight to two blind men, casts out another demon, heals more sicknesses and diseases, , heals a withered hand, heals multitudes on the shore, feeds 5,000 people, walks on water, calms another storm, heals the sick at Gennesaret, heals the syrophoenecian’s daughter, another crowd of sick are healed, feeds another 4,000 people, is transfigured with Moses and Elijah present, heals an epileptic boy, orders Peter to find a coin in a fish’s mouth and pay their taxes with them - try that next April 15th - heals the blind and lame at the Temple, curses a fig tree, raises from the dead, walks through walls several times, then raises bodily into heaven - and I’m sure somewhere in the middle of that had lunch.
the works He did testified of Him. I keep hearing from the Rabbis that the Messiah is not supposed to do miracles - if that’s really the case, then this is a bargain. We get the Messiah, He’s God and He also did a bunch of miracles at the same time.
My sheep hear my voice and listen to me - you don’t hear because you’re not of my sheep.
Brutal words. Jesus is saying, “I will raise them up to eternal life.” Implied message - I’m not raising you up to anything except everlasting torment and shame. Many, many, many of whom we celebrate today will be in that number.
You are not of that number. To you, Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is the door, and all who find Him enter in and find pasture inside. Christ will raise you up on the last day to everlasting life. None can take you out of His hand. you believe. you know Christ because He first had knowledge of you.
This is where the Reformed faith is so astounding. Syncretionism claims that God elected a potential number of people, but didn’t know who would be in that number. We believe God not only knew who you were, but saved you anyway. God chose you, and made you part of a definite group of people, with names and faces that He chose for all eternity.
The passage ends with one of the most startling declarations in the Gospel. I had this one memorized. “I and the father are one.”
ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ⸆ ἕν ἐσμεν.
Ego, I kai, and, ha pater the father en esmen are one. It doesn’t mean in agreement. It doesn’t mean they’re similar. It’s a claim to divine nature, to be a part of the Trinity.
If any more proof is needed to prove Jesus’s contention they are not saved, this is one more. They respond by picking up stones to stone Him.
If you disagree with the Greek here, the reaction of the former followers of Jesus are very clear - they take his statement ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ⸆ ἕν ἐσμεν to mean He is God. Not only will Christ’s words bear witness against any who do not believe; the actions of the Jews in John 10:31 is witness as well.
There’s another miracle here not mentioned, but alluded to by John. This has to do with the feast of Dedication. Chanukah. During theSeluecid occupation of Israel, the Syrians sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple. The temple was cleaned and re-consecrated - but only one cask of oil remianed. Enough for one day. It would take a week to make enough oil. So they lit it and the oil continued burning for eight days. It remained lit until they had enough oil made to refill the Menorah and keep the eternal flame lit.
And so Christ says, “I am - eigo Eimi - the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness.”
These men did not follow him. They are in darkness.
You follow Christ. he is your light. He is the good shepherd. You know His voice and follow Him.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank you for your grace you have shown us. Thank you Lord for knowing us, choosing us, forgiving us. Help us walk in your light in the coming week. Let us cast our cares upon you, enter in and find rest. No matter the cares of this life, we know that You have given us eternal life and will keep us forever. Watch over us in this coming week until we can assemlbe again in Your name we pray,
Amen.
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